TWENTY vehicles conveying no less than 103 underage children were intercepted by the members of the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Kogi State capital city of Lokoja on Sunday.
According to the commander of the JTF, Lt. Colonel Gabriel Olorunyomi, the intercepted vehicles traveled from various parts of the middle-belt and the south-south regions that included Benue, Kogi and Cross Rivers.
The army commander told journalists that the 103 children were between the ages 3 and 16 years. Another 79 people were found to be between 19 and 53 years.
The children are suspected to be victims of child-trafficking, moved from their communities by merchants of trafficking who intend to hand them over to yet unidentified persons waiting to pay for the delivery.
This claim was made by the Commander of Army records present at the briefing, Major-General Alphonsos Chukwu, who also revealed that the drivers of the vehicles transporting the children had no passenger manifest in their possession as required by law.
The passengers and the arrested vehicles would be handed over to police authorities for further investigations, according to the army commanders, who also charged parents to pay better attention to the care and protection of their wards, as opportunists as the arrested suspects may be lying in wait to kidnap their children for trafficking purposes.